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Off the Court, Onto the Stage

Charles Sykes/Associated PressMagic Johnson, left, and Larry Bird at the opening of the Broadway play “Magic/Bird” on Wednesday night.

“Magic/Bird,” a play about the relationship between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird that evolved from hatred to a deep friendship from 1979 to 1992, opened Wednesday night at the Longacre Theater.

Kevin Daniels plays Johnson, and Tug Coker portrays Bird. The six-person cast includes Peter Scolari, who is known for his roles in the sitcoms “Newhart” and “Bosom Buddies” and is playing three famous and very different characters: Red Auerbach (with a cigar but no hair covering to appear bald), Los Angeles Lakers Coach Pat Riley and the Lakers owner Jerry Buss (in gaudy clothes).

“Magic/Bird” is produced, written and directed by the same creative team that was behind “Lombardi,” the play about the coach Vince Lombardi that ran for 244 performances from 2010-11.

JOHNSON We were both surprised. Here are these two guys from the Midwest who went on to play for the Lakers and Celtics, and of course we had great careers, a great rivalry and been linked to each other since the N.C.A.A. tournament. But if somebody said, “Man, can you believe they want to do a play about you and Larry?” I’d say, “No way.”

BIRD I never really thought about it before, but I had heard about the “Lombardi” play and I know some people who went to it. My first reaction was it’s not really me. I don’t know much about plays. I’ve been to them, but this is different. This was about me.

The impact of “Lombardi,” one of the few sports plays to make it to Broadway:

JOHNSON I was blown away. I wanted to see how you do two sports guys within a play. How would “Lombardi” work and would the crowd respond? And the crowd was responding. It was great. They did a wonderful job casting. “Lombardi” warmed me, and then we really had to work on Larry. I said to him, “We’re going to be involved in the script, so let’s read it, add our notes, and talk to the writer and it’s going to come out in our voice.” Plus, this is about legacy, too, about our kids, all those things rolled into one.

On their dealings with Eric Simonson:

BIRD I think he was a little nervous meeting me. Magic is more outgoing. I’m more of a listener. My main thing is to get it right. Don’t say my mother said this when she didn’t. He asked a lot of questions, like, “When you played against Magic, did you really say this?” And we talked about Magic’s H.I.V. announcement.

JOHNSON We just wanted it to capture our voice and make sure that, yes, it was an intense and tough rivalry, yet still, I’ve got this personality and Larry’s this subdued cat. I’m the Laker and Showtime. I wanted that to come across.

SIMONSON It was really getting a sense of them as people. It’s a character-driven story; everything comes out of that. It’s easier to get Larry. I’m from the Midwest like he is. I get his dry sense of humor. With Magic, a lot of his popularity is based on people seeing aspects of him that they can latch onto, but it’s not the same for everyone. It’s harder to grasp him. Underneath the Magic thing is an intelligence that tells him what people need from him. But Larry doesn’t care. He doesn’t care what people need from him.

Pushback from Bird or Magic:

SIMONSON Larry said, “You wrote that Red said, ‘S.O.B.,’ but he never swore.”

On correcting an early draft that said Auerbach drank alcohol that was changed to a Shasta:

BIRD I don’t ever remember Red drinking.

Spotting a flaw in Kevin Daniels’s portrayal of Magic:

JOHNSON My man wasn’t smiling! I said, “I’m the smiling, fun-loving guy, but you’re doing Larry.” He wanted to know what drove me on the court and I said: “I’m smiling, but I also wanted to break your neck or kill you. I wanted to stop you but with a smile on my face. Never think that because I’m smiling that I wasn’t the most intense guy you wanted to meet.”

Tutoring Tug Coker on how to play Bird:

JOHNSON I told him: “In the scene where Larry walks past me after he’s beaten me, Larry had a little smirk on his face. I said, “You’ve got to have a little smirk.” I hated that smirk.

Remembering the lunch that Georgia Bird made during a break in the filming of their Converse commercial in 1985 at Larry’s house in West Baden, Ind.:

JOHNSON We really didn’t like each other and the organizations, didn’t like each other. We had never sat down together. This was big. And I was mad that I had to go to his house to shoot the commercial. So when the director said, “Let’s break for lunch,” I was going to my trailer and he says, “No, you’re coming to the house,” and I’m like, “What?” How is this going to play? So we got up there, and his mother, she won me over. She gave me a big hug, says: “How’re you doing? How’s your family?” and she said, “Sit down.” So Larry sits there, I sit there, and we’re wondering what we’re going to say. But his mother was really driving it and she almost made us talk to each other, and it was the greatest moment for both of us. We got to know each other as men. I’ll never forget that moment.

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